


Miracle Maker

by Nagisa_Hawkzuki



Category: Free!
Genre: And Ssk being awkward around these cute animals, Animal Handler! Momo, Animal Handler! Nagisa, M/M, Petting Zoo! AU, Reluctant Animal Handler! Sousuke, Ssk meets a baby penguin and what else do you want from a fic, Vet! Rei, also I really love Momo hence he is a main character, extended fluff, i guess, lots of Sou-chans!, lots of cute animals!, ssk is flustered confused and paternal, vague attempts at comedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 12:14:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7221958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nagisa_Hawkzuki/pseuds/Nagisa_Hawkzuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Momo, Rei and Nagisa own an animal rescue and Sousuke is dragged along for the ride.</p><p> </p><p>(tags and relationships to be updated as characters pop in to make some extended cameos and relationships become more established)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miracle Maker

**Author's Note:**

> The Petting Zoo! AU nobody asked for or needed but I wrote anyway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternative Title: Sousuke meets a Baby Penguin

“Excuse me! Sorry! It’s an emergency!! Coming through!”

Sousuke groaned in frustration as he was shoved aside by a blur that ran past him to the check out he’d just been ambling to. He watched as the blur dropped an armful of dog food onto the conveyor belt. A can bounced and rolled onto the floor but the blur didn’t appear to notice. Sousuke let out a frustrated sigh as he bent down to pick up the fallen food and it was only when he looked up that he realised why this particular blur had seemed so familiar.

Huge golden eyes beamed down at him through tangles of bright orange hair and Sousuke could only blink in return.

“SOUSUKE-SENPAI!!!”

_____

“Uhh.. are you sure you don’t want a bag?”

Momo shook his head though only the top strands of his hair were visible as the rest of him was hidden behind a mountain of dog food. Biscuits, tins of wet food, chews, everything apart from the huge bag of dry food that Sousuke was holding over his shoulder.

“I didn’t have time for a bag, Sousuke-senpai, it was an emergency!” Momo explained.

“Right, but you did have time to talk me into carrying this for you and dragging me to where ever it is we’re going?”

Momo shrugged. “You’re not exactly the hardest to talk round Sousuke-senpai.” 

Sousuke frowned. He was right, and Rin was right. When it came to Momo and Ai it didn’t take a lot to convince him to help out, despite his pretences. Maybe he needed to become less of a pushover with his kouhai. He shook his head lightly, dispelling the apparently paternal feelings that were clouding his brain.

“Where exactly did you say we were going, Momo?” 

Momo spun around causing a packet of biscuits to fly into the road, straight into the path of an oncoming cyclist.

“We are going to the greatest place on earth!” Momo called, oblivious to the annoyed yells of the cyclist. “We are going to...MIRACLE MAKER!!”

Momo had a glint in his eye and grinned at Sousuke.

“You do know that sounds like a strip club, right?”

The glint vanished from Momo’s eye.  
“Huh, that’s funny. That’s just what Nagisacchi said..”

Sousuke couldn’t help but smile; he had to admit it, he’d missed Momo.

“No,where we’re going is even better than a strip club!” He cried before spinning back around and skipping down the road dropping more treats as he went.

Sousuke readjusted the dog food on his shoulder before somewhat hesitantly following Momo. After all, he didn’t know how far he could trust the judgement of a boy who once claimed Pyunsuke and his mate climbing into Sousuke’s pillowcase and making stag beetle babies was “the best thing to ever happen to him.”

______

“Momo-kun, did you get the dog foo- Ah Sousuke-san!” 

From what Sousuke could see, Rei hadn’t changed at all in the year he’d been away. He was leant against the counter in the light airy reception of the building Sousuke had been led into by Momo . He wore the same red frames he always did, and his blue hair was as untamed as ever. The only differences Sousuke could tell were the white lab coat he wore and the clipboard in his hand. 

“How’ve you been Rei?” Sousuke said. Rei raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by the sound of barking from an adjacent room. Rei’s brows furrowed before his face exploded with realisation.

He skittered across the floor to Momo, grabbed a packet of dog biscuits from his loaded arms before turning tail and rushing to the next room rustling the packet as he went.

“Iwatobi-chan! Samezuka-chan! I’m coming! Quieten down! Don’t panic!”

Sousuke watched Rei bumble away and raised a quizzical eyebrow in Momo’s direction.

Momo shrugged again. “We found two puppies, and named them after the good old days.” Momo laughed, seemingly unaware he’d made himself sound like a 60 year old man rather than a 20 year old, and turned to sort through the dog food on a nearby table. 

It was only then that Sousuke took a moment to take in the surrealness of the place he was now stood. He had been dragged for 8 blocks by a hyper Momo to this seemingly ordinary looking house at the edge of town. When he stepped through the door he realised this wasn’t a house at all. Several rooms at the front had been converted into the reception he now stood in and doors led of to unknown extensions at the back of the room. Posters and pictures of an all manner of creatures plastered the walls and the sound of Rei fighting a losing battle to quieten down two noisy pups was ripping through the room. If 3 weeks ago he’d been asked where he’d be now he would certainly not have said in the middle of a vet’s run by his ex teammate and the man he used to swim butterfly against. This was odd and just when he thought it couldn’t get any weirder through the door opposite Rei’s kerfuffle burst Nagisa carrying a bucket of fish and being followed by a very small penguin.

Nagisa stomped across the room and knocked loudly on the Rei’s door.

“Rei-chan!!” He knocked again. “Can you quiet down?!!! You know that Sou-chan is too nervous to eat when it’s noisy!!” 

Ordinarily, Sousuke would’ve appreciated the irony of Nagisa asking Rei to keep the noise down whilst he, himself, was hollering loud enough to rattle the door frames. But in that moment he was simply too baffled to think let alone speak.

“Rei-chan!!” Nagisa gave one final thump on the door, turning around to pace out the room again when he spotted Sousuke. His face instantly lit up and he bounced over to Sousuke and gripped him by the forearms.

“Sou-chan! What are you doing here?” He asked excitedly. Before Sousuke could even think about responding, the tiny penguin left in Nagisa’s wake had begun to make tiny baby penguin squawking noises. Nagisa whipped around.

“Sou-chan!” He said, lightly scolding, “What are you doing here?” He skipped over to the penguin and scooped it up in both arms. “I told you to stay with the others. You know you’re not supposed to follow me anymore.” 

He carried the penguin like a baby over to where Sousuke was standing slack jawed and wide eyed, beyond confused. 

“Sou-chan?” Sousuke felt the word slip out of his mouth, and was suddenly reminded of the first time Nagisa had graced him with that nickname.

“Oh right!” Nagisa smiled and held out the little penguin to Sousuke. “Sou-chan meet Sou-chan!”

Sousuke’s eyes met the tiny black eyes of the penguin in front of him and he gulped. He didn’t think he’d ever been this close to something so tiny, let alone an actual baby penguin. He had so many questions. Where did Nagisa get the penguin? Did he steal it? Could Sousuke pet the penguin? But not a single one came out instead only came “Sou-chan?”

The penguin cocked its head slightly and looked up at Sousuke inquisitively. 

“He’s named after you.” Momo piped up, sauntering over. “We found him wandering on the beach so we brought him back and he kept wandering about the place and getting lost in the weirdest places even after he’d been here a while. And we thought, “Who do we know that always gets lost?” and we thought of you, Sousuke-senpai!”

Sousuke was still confused as to what emotion he was supposed to be feeling. His thoughts were interrupted by a huge clatter from the next door room followed by a scream from Rei and more incessant yapping from the dogs.

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa’s eyes flickered with panic. He thrust the penguin into Sousuke’s huge hands- “Sou-chan! Hold Sou-chan!”- before racing into the next room. 

Sousuke had no time to retort though his whole body was crying out to him to do so. He was tense- more tense than he’d been in his life, and he was shaking ever so slightly. Though in spite of this Sou-chan seemed reasonably happy. He sat comfortably in Sousuke’s broad palm, though he began to peep quietly.

Sousuke’s eyes widened in horror. What was he supposed to do now? Was Sou-chan going to start crying? Do penguins even cry? Sousuke didn’t know and he didn’t want to find out. 

He was starting to panic when Momo said, “Sousuke-senpai, you need to hold him closer to you like this.” He brought his hands into his chest and Sousuke mimicked him gently.

“He hasn’t grown at all since he got here so we need to keep him warm.”

Sousuke looked down at the penguin. He was very small and fragile. Sou-chan snuggled into Sousuke’s jacket and closed his tiny eyes and Sousuke gave a shaky laugh.

“Momo, look!” Sousuke whispered. Momo laughed at Sousuke’s nervousness and awe.

“Sousuke-senpai, you’re a natural!”

Sousuke smiled slightly and continued to stare at his tiny namesake. He consciously made sure his breathing was deep and calm to lull the penguin into a deeper sleep. In his very limited penguin care experience, he thought this wasn’t a bad place for a little penguin to have a nap. However, his perfect penguin peace was shattered when Nagisa burst into the room laughing uproariously.

“Rei-chan fell into the dogs’ water bowl!” He cackled and wiped a tear from his eye. 

“Shhhh!”

Nagisa stopped immediately and looked over to where Sousuke was standing. A small smile danced across his face and he tiptoed over to him. He peeped into Sousuke’s jacket and beamed up at Sousuke.

“Looks like Sou-chan’s found a new papa. Right, Sou-chan?” 

Sousuke fought not to show the little butterflies that comment gave him.

___

 

A little while later, after Sou-chan had woken up crying for a feed and Sousuke had very willingly handed him over to Nagisa, Sousuke sat at a rickety table in what he supposed was the kitchen. That may have been a bit of a stretch but there was a kettle, a mini fridge and several packets of biscuits and, to Nagisa and Momo, that was enough to make the room a kitchen.

“I have said that calling this place a kitchen was only going to disappoint people when they came to discover it was actually just the biscuit room.” Rei sighed and stretched slightly in the chair across from Sousuke.

“Reicchi! This is Miracle Maker! Anything is possible! If Nagisa can put seven penguins to bed in a pile of hats and mittens then this place can be the kitchen.” Momo sparkled as he spoke. He plonked himself down in the remaining chair and blew on his drink to cool it.

Rei and Sousuke watched the hot chocolate ripple around the mini marshmallows Momo had piled on, in bemusement. In many ways the boy they’d known in high school had matured and grown but this was a habit he’d yet to grow out of. Sousuke had asked him on numerous occasions why he didn’t just make a cold milkshake if he couldn’t handle hot drinks. Ai had cautioned him many times to wait a little before drinking his drink. And Rin had been there every time Momo had failed to listen to his senpais’ advice and burnt his tongue, with a lecture, a slap to the back of the head, and a cool drink. 

“Besides, I don’t know what you’re complaining about; biscuits are a staple food source.” He said dunking a custard cream into his hot chocolate. Rei shook his head and looked at the boy wondering how he could possibly have survived two decades on a diet of sweets, before getting up and making to leave.

“Momo-kun, I have to go back to see my family for a little as my brother is home for the night, so that means that you’re in charge of locking up for the night, understood?”

“Why can’t Nagisacchi do it?”

Rei sighed, “Because Nagisa-kun left an hour ago to go and harass my brother. He works in the city and brings back sweets we don’t get here and Nagisa-kun, as expected, loves that.”

“Ah, well no problem, we can lock up, right, Sousuke-senpai?”

He gave Sousuke a sharp dig with an elbow, and Sousuke nodded slightly though had nothing but bad feelings about this.

 

Momo jangled the keys cheerily in his left hand and jiggled the locks of the pens of a line of animals to ensure they were secure. His whistles echoed and bounced off the laminate floor and whitewash walls. Sousuke trailed behind him with a bag of treats in his arms.

Whipping around, Momo gave Sousuke a grin and a thumbs up. “All secure, Sousuke-senpai! Now for the fun part!” The over exaggerated wink Momo just did was the signal for Sousuke to shake the treat bag.

As he did so, the ears of 3 dogs and 5 cats pricked up and a couple of rabbits shuffled to the front of their pen; and Sousuke could hear a chorus of calls that he recognised as penguin noises.

Momo laughed uproariously. “Haha! Treat time, children, eat up!!”

He dashed up half the row of pens and gave each animal a treat and a pat. He turned to face Sousuke whilst ruffling the shaggy black ears of Asahi the Newfoundland, who was usually anxious and reserved but whenever Momo was around his tail wagged so ferociously it looked as though it would fly off.

“Come on Sousuke-senpai, you’re being too slow!” 

Sousuke only blinked in return. He hadn’t moved but that was only because the exhaustion he’d felt since stepping off the plane the day before had hit him again.

Momo grabbed the treats from his arms and returned to the pens that still contained eager animals. 

“Don’t worry though, it’s fine I can do it. We only have the penguins to check and then we can go because Reicchi already put the chickens in their coop.”

He finished up his petting of Iwatobi-chan and Samezuka-chan and flicked the light off.

“Get some rest guys!” He called, and then more quietly to Sousuke, “Come on the penguins, are just out here.” 

“Ah, right.” Sousuke nodded and followed Momo outside. They stood under a porch with warm lights. Half the porch was taken up by a penguin pen. The door to the penguin pool was shut and the penguins inside were sleepy apart from one. A very small penguin stared up at Sousuke. 

Momo nudged him in the ribs. 

“This one’s all yours.” He said handing Sousuke a tub of dried sardines.

Sousuke crouched down so that he could reach comfortably into the pen. Tentatively, he held out a single sardine to Sou-chan. Equally as apprehensive, the little penguin edged over to Sousuke’s hand before gaining the confidence to snap the sardine from the gentle grip of Sousuke’s thumb and forefinger. 

Sousuke gave a warm chuckle as Sou-chan inspected his hand for more. As he reached to get his namesake another sardine he became aware of another pair of eyes watching him. 

He glanced to his side to see Momo staring at him, eyes dark and questioning, his chin resting gently on his clasped hands.

“Sousuke-senpai…” He said in a tone that concerned Sousuke as Momo was never this quiet or pensive. “Why are you here?”

Sousuke gulped slightly: there it was the deceivingly perceptive Mikoshiba Momotarou. He had a habit of lulling people into the false sense they were to talking to a person who was fun but ultimately pretty scatterbrained due to his hyperactivity. But Sousuke and the rest of Samezuka knew that Momo noticed the slightest thing about anyone especially if something was off. He knew this question was coming so he’d had a little time to prepare but it still caught him off guard.

“May I remind you, you’re the one who dragged me here? And anyway, I could ask you the same thing.”

Instantly Momo’s eye’s lit up and he threw his head back and laughed. 

“I guess you’re right!”

“Weren’t you going to be Japan’s Sea Otter again?”

Momo twirled a strand of hair around his index finger.

“Well, yeah. I mean it was fun whilst it lasted and I do still like swimming, like a lot! But I went to the city a while ago and found a pigeon covered in gum- probably put there by some no good city assholes. So, I cleaned the pigeon right up and he flew away no problem. And it felt really good- to help, I mean. So I just sort of started helping animals and fostering them and stuff. 

When Nii-chan last came to visit I was looking after two dogs, a cat and a turtle. He laughed and offered me his share of this place.” 

Momo gestured to the building behind them and Sousuke saw his face soften as he continued to speak.

“This place was my Grandad’s and he always loved animals. Not just loved them but looked after them too. Everytime we came round as kids, the house would be like a zoo. He’s the one who gave me my first stag beetle.” His smile slipped slightly. “And then he died. He left me and Nii-chan the house, Nee-chan was never big on animals or anything so he just left it to us brothers. When Nii-chan gave me his share, I couldn’t think of anything better do with it!”

He was grinning again. “And then Nagisacchi said he’d help and dragged Reicchi along and now he’s training to be a proper vet. Which is sort of a miracle, that we all found our way together. And then it’s a miracle that the animals that need help find us. Hence the name Miracle Maker!”

A tinny beeping interrupted Momo’s speech. He glanced down at his watch.

“Crap! I told Mum I’d be back for 11:00.” He leapt to his feet. “I’ve gotta dash, Sousuke-senpai. Are you coming?”

Sousuke remained crouched next to the penguin pen and Sou-chan was happily nibbling at Sousuke’s fingers as they still carried the smell of the dried sardines. He looked at the tiny bird and felt his chest swell slightly.

“Actually, Momo, I think I’m going to stay a while longer.” Realising he shouldn’t be imposing himself in a place that wasn’t his, he added a hasty, “If that’s ok?”

Momo nodded vigorously. 

“Sure, I’ll leave the key in the door for you. Put it under the mat when you’re done,OK?”

Sousuke nodded in acknowledgement. 

“G’night Sousuke-senpai!” Momo cried before whisking out of sight, leaving the door wide open behind him.

“Good night, Momo,” Sousuke’s response was a little redundant as Momo had already gone but the thought was there. 

Sousuke settled himself into a more comfortable cross legged position and handed Sou-chan another sardine.

“For such a little guy, you eat a lot.” The image of Nagisa eating 8 Iwatobig Surprise Breads in one sitting flashed into Sousuke’s head and it was clear that he wasn’t the only person this penguin took after.

Sou-chan chirruped happily and nipped playfully at Sousuke’s hand demanding another treat. 

“Oi, you shouldn’t do that. You need to sleep now, you’re only little.”  
Sousuke opened his hand and placed his palm flat next to Sou-chan. Needing no hints, the little penguin huddled into his warm palm and closed his eyes.

A gentle smile danced over Sousuke’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there it is the 1st chapter of a ridiculously fluffy au that is as ridiculous as it is fluffy
> 
> unbeta'd so apologies regarding any typos
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading and I'll try to update soon (ish)
> 
> also
> 
> Is Asahi the anxious Newfoundland Asahi Azumane in dog form?! (certainly)  
> Will he get a hyper little terrier friend called Nishinoya?! (almost definitely)
> 
> sunshine-season.tumblr.com


End file.
